The son-in-law of IRA murder victim Jean McConville has criticised the makers of new drama Say Nothing for not consulting his family before it began streaming on Disney+ last week.
The nine-part series tells the story of Ms McConville, a Belfast widow and mother of 10 who was murdered and secretly buried during the Troubles.
Seamus McKendry, who campaigned for many years in support of his wife Helen’s efforts to find her mum’s remains and wrote a book about it back 2000, made the remarks after the couple binge-watched the entire show.
“There was no communication with the programme-makers at all,” he told the Sunday World.
“They never once lifted the phone to ask us what is your opinion on this or that.
“There was a total lack of communication with Helen and myself.
“We have been working on the Disappeared for almost 40 years so you would have thought we were the most likely candidates to speak to about a programme like this.
“That’s hurtful.”
The grievance prompted a video conference, organised by a family solicitor, between the couple and a representative of those making the series. The McKendrys say they were told a private screening would be organised for them before the online release.
However, Mr McKendry said that never happened.
Despite his criticism, both relatives of Ms McConville are pleased with the end product and hope it will bring the story of the Disappeared to a much wider audience, describing the cast as “absolutely brilliant”.
However, Mr McKendry said they believed the abduction scene in the first episode was “poorly portrayed” and “should have shown the full horror of what happened”.
“It didn’t and it left you to guess what had happened,” he told the newspaper.
“I was worried Helen would have a really bad reaction to the programme but she handled it well.
“There are a lot of positives but if they (the programme makers) had just made that effort to communicate with us.
“They are a multi-million pound company and you think they could have made a wee bit of an effort.”
Scenes from the Disney documentary Say Nothing
The programme also depicts the troubled lives of IRA members Brendan Hughes and Marian and Dolours Price, with plotlines spanning from the time of Ms McConville’s disappearance to the disappearance of others including Kevin McKee (17), Seamus Wright (25), and Joe Lynskey (40).
They were all abducted in Belfast in 1972 and subsequently buried in secret locations.
The remains of Mr Lynskey have still not been found alongside those of two others.
But Mr McKendry believes the IRA lied about how many people they killed and secretly buried.
“There are a lot more bodies out there,” he said
“Who are the Provos to say there are only four more bodies out there?
“They denied there were any Disappeared before we embarrassed them into admitting it.”
Mr McKendry’s wife Helen, who is Mrs McConville’s eldest daughter and recently suffered a stroke, was determined to watch the series in one sitting.
Viewers will be familiar with a disclaimer in each episode of the show which is based on true events.
“Gerry Adams has always denied being a member of the IRA or participating in any IRA-related violence,” it reads.
Gerry Adams denies being a member of the IRA or of participating in IRA violence
The former Sinn Fein president issued a statement through his legal representatives last week to reiterate the denial.
They insisted their client has consistently asserted his innocence in respect of the death of Ms McConville.
“Mr Adams had no involvement in the killing or burial of any of those secretly buried by the IRA,” the statement read.
It stressed that Mr Adams has not seen the drama, but “according to media reports it is based primarily on interviews in the discredited Boston College Tapes from several anti-peace process republicans”.
Before their deaths, Hughes and Dolours Price both gave interviews in which they linked Mr Adams to an IRA unit associated with the killings.
The ex-Sinn Fein leader was arrested but later released without charge.
The new drama, which is based on a book of the same name by US journalist Patrick Radden Keefe, has been attracting rave reviews with Time magazine describing it as the “must-watch political thriller of 2024”.